Du Hongwei is picking Chinese toon from her trees. Photo by Ma Jiajun/Hebei Daily
It is the season for picking Chinese toon in Ganjianling Village, Taiying Town, Funing District, Qinhuangdao City, and villagers are busy picking and selling them.
“I just picked it from the tree, look, how fresh it is!” said villager Du Hongwei, adding that she can harvest about 300 kilograms of Chinese toon, the price of the first crop was 12 yuan/kg, and now the second crop 2 yuan/kg, and she will earn at least 6,000 yuan this year. She didn’t expect such income in the past.
Like Du Hongwei, the villagers in Ganjianling Village used to treat Chinese toon as a common home-style dish on the dinner table. They didn’t realize the trees that grew everywhere could become their cash cow.
Ganjianling Village is located in a hilly arc, with sufficient sunlight, suitable temperature and soil, and this kind of red toon grows in the unique natural microclimate looks and tastes better than other varieties.
In recent years, the polluting-free food is increasingly demanded, the leaders of Ganjianling Village have found that the unique red toon in the village has a broad market demand, so they took the lead to grow toon trees in the idle land in the village, and increase the number of seedlings, aiming to improve villagers’ income. At present, the planting area of red toon trees in the village has reached more than 500 mu, with an annual yield of nearly 800,000 kg. The toons are sold in mid-April every year, and the picking time lasts for a month. The price ranges from 1 to 13 yuan/kg. The per capita incomes increased by 4000 yuan.
On May 5 at 4 a.m., 56-year-old villager Du Guocai got up early and went to pick toon growing in his 7 mu of land. He has been doing like this for half a month. The toons are sold well, which makes Du forget the tiredness.
“The toon will get tough if we miss the time, I have to pick more high-quality toons and sell them for a good price. Now, the toon has become one of the main sources of our income.” Du Guocai said, adding that the red toon has been very popular, customers from Beijing, Tianjin and even Yunnan, and Inner Mongolia come to buy them.
Ganjianling Village has built a terminal for the convenience of villagers and merchants, which improved the development of the toon industry. The village authority also organized livestreaming through online platform and short videos to broaden sales channels. In addition, they have created an industrial model of “agriculture + tourism”, to promote the integrated development of sightseeing agriculture and rural tourism focusing on picking, catering and entertainment, which injects strong impetus to rural vitalization.
“We have registered the ‘Ganjianling’ red toon brand, and our toon industry has developed into a characteristic industry in the town.” said Du Wei, secretary of the village party branch and director of the village committee, adding that they will establish a toon planting cooperative to harvest and sell in a unified manner, so as to help villagers avoid market risks and promote the quality and efficiency of the toon industry.
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